I suppose the 3 weeks of teaching English has concluded, and it does seem to have occupied most of my time. Not that there haven't been bouts of watching Pulp Fiction and Serenity, but largely have felt busy, and perhaps even excited to be teaching English to Mongolian children. No, I think I can say that it has been most of the best teaching ( Read more... )

One weekend I saw a large T. Rex skeleton, and an even larger statue of Chinggis Khaan. After a quiet week of cramming Mongolian verbs and getting my final rabies shot, the weekend involved picking up trash near the Tol River and putting together a portable Mongolian home (aka yurt, ger ( Read more... )

Sain baitsgaanu! (Translation: 'Sup, y'all!)

I try to pay attention to how much time I spend with the dozen trainees living in the same community as me, and balance it with the amount of time I spend with my host family, who are nice enough to feed me every day and put up with my general incompetence. Admittedly, this is just about the nicest group ( Read more... )

It was cold this weekend and I can't build a fire yet, so I spent even more time than usual in my host family's main house trying to communicate with the granddaughters (the grandson is pre-verbal, but he smiles a lot). We watched dubbed Tale of Desperaux (you can still hear snatches of English and its a pretty simple plot), chopped every vegetable ( Read more... )

So, Mongolia is not America. I haven't had any soda since I got off the plane in UB. Finally saw UB in the daytime, was excited to see the countryside. My fellow Vermonter was one of my roommates, has a beautiful Garrison Keillor radio voice, and seems all around to be a swell guy. During the summer he is the jijuur (secretary) of my class, so ( Read more... )

I'm not sure what the long-term affects of copious Tum's consumption would be, but so far it has improved the feeling in my tummy, and my appetite, and even helped my body to begin warming my hands and feet again. Clearly, I am internalizing stress.

I found volunteers from every college/university I've attended (Sarah of SLC, Geoff of SBU, Molly of ( Read more... )

My last cartrip for the foreseeable future took me to Ohio for my cousin's wedding (I think C. Moore Good is the only single cousin remaining over the age of 20. And with that name, how long can it last?). The latest Prius doesn't have my favoritest fuel gauge of all time, but eventually it started moving again. We were just being careful ( Read more... )

Tradition dictates that I travel to a US National Park with schoonerbug  every Memorial Day. This year we arrived in Rocky Mountain National Park (2 hrs NW of Denver, CO). Acting as our cultural guides were Erin the Yooper and her friend Tara. To thank them for being great hosts I gave them a summer’s supply of books.

A young girl we met was hoping to find a ( Read more... )

One of my father's colleagues heard I was going to Mongolia and invited us all over to his place to eat pizza and watch a documentary called Genghis Blues. Genghis because Genghis Khan is the coolest guy to come out of northeast Asia in the past millenia, and Blues because it follows the story of a blind blues guitarist named Paul Pena.

Once Upon a ( Read more... )

Sita Sings the Blues: a great story on the wrong side of copyright law. Watch the movie for free, make a donation for art.
Good for those interested in India, 1920s jazz, flash animation, choreography, intertextuality, storytelling, or rising from the ashes.